CELL phones serve as a 'helping hand' in an emergency to almost 50 million of mobile subscribers in Egypt, a country of 80 million people, but they can also be a curse because of the growing number of anonymous lines used by wily people. According to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), there are now 3 million lines with anonymous owners, sold by hawkers in popular areas for less than LE5, without their having to get personal, subscriber- related data. Some unscrupulous persons use these lines to blackmail, threaten, harass and steal from other people, as well as to bribe them. Because these anonymous lines make it easy for criminals to jeopardise Egypt's social security, the Ministry of Interior is planning to get rid of them. "In co-ordination with the NTRA, the General Tele-communications Police Administration have managed to confiscate about 1 million mobile lines, being sold in the street without contracts or user-related data," says a security official, adding that the sellers have been arrested. This step, taken by the Interior Ministry, is a serious attempt to prevent further gut wrenching crimes involving bribery, theft and murder, which dominate the headlines in local dailies. People started buying these anonymous lines in 2007, but it was only recently that criminals started to abuse them to a great extent, prompting the Ministry of Interior to launch a crackdown. Aware of the seriousness of the problem, Vodafone Company for Mobile Services established in 2007 a centre responsible for obtaining all its clients' data. But it seems that this was not enough to get rid of the problem of the anonymous lines. Adel Ibrahim, an engineer with Vodafone Company, denies the mobile companies are to blame. "It is the agent, who sells these lines to retail shops without getting the subscriber- related data, who must be held accountable," he argues. Ibrahim stresses that his company has held meetings with the other two giant mobile companies, Mobinil and Etisalat, with all three agreeing to get the subscribers' data, as well as a copy of their ID, so that they can access them if they commit an offence. Meanwhile, the NTRA has called on officials at the three mobile companies to pass on all their client-related data. The NTRA has also asked them to co-operate with the Interior Ministry to track the hawkers, who sell these lines in popular areas of Greater Cairo like Attaba.
